Saber III Problems

[txafamn]

Hello All,
I dont know if this has been discussed before, If it has then I apologize. but let me break it down....

I have 2 Saber MDL III's that I had bought off of ebay....
both are H43QXK7139CN
both are the 136-150.0 Mhz sub band, which isnt that big of deal cause I have a Systems Saber with some sacrifical modules that I can use.

first off, when I hooked the radios up to my computer... ''old toshiba satellite 486 machine running pure DOS''. using RSS 07.01.00. I get checksum errors while reading the internal,external cope, and 5D core. after going into one of the radios options screen and dissable the stuff i dont need I fill in all my freqs and mode names for amateur use and write to the radio. after that I get ERR 0 C1!!! I read the radio again and look at the options screen and there is all kinds of stuff highlighted, and when I go into the channel screen, all the freqs are jacked up, There are 435, 762, and 103 frequencies in there and wierd PL combinations... After fixing all that I write the radio again and get ERR 0 81!! the only thing I can do is get alternating ERR 0 81 and ERR 0 C1 codes (every other time I write to the radio) on the display. I have even tried using a saved archive file with no luck. I have swapped out the front shield/display boards and everything with no change. Can somebody help me? Im pulling my hair out on this one?

[mike m]

Start small and work your way up, do you have a fully loaded codeplug that your trying to program in the radio, 120 channels and full scan lists along with alpha and user selectable CTCSS ?

If so then make up a new limited/small codeplug with a single zone first, don't make up any scan list or enable any options just yet, then program this small codeplug into the radio.

If it takes it then add another zone or 2 and see how it goes.

I had similar problems which started when I max'd the codeplug out.

Even after i had my radio taking all my zones i ran into problems with scan list. I ended up removing my last scan list and then kept the radio at around 95%of it's memory usage and never had a problem after that.

I also hope your using a real RLN4008 RIB and Motorola cable, the saber doesn't like anything aftermarket for programming.

[txafamn]

Eveything is genuine motorola components, when i loaded a new codeplug into it I only put one mode in it and enabled TOT, INHIBIT ON RX, and H400 ''something with encryption.. cant remember exactly'' because it has a encryption module in it... One time i enabled VP CAPABLE ONLY thinking it was the module or something. I have also tried recasing the radio. putting it into a brand new systems saber III case thinking the flex curcuits in the case were flaky.

[FireCpt809]

I agree with Mike, Build a new codeplug from scratch. Load that in there. If it takes then build on it. I just had to do this with an Ebay special that had an Err 081. It worked fine. Im using it today at the FD . It may be a pain to reprogram all your freqs.

Ive been using aftermarket RIB's and cables form my sabers for years. I have never had a problem.

[txafamn]

ok, thinking all hope was gone I put the sabers up for another day... Well, yesterday I was bored and dug them out. After swapping some modules and display boards around, I was able to make one good saber out of two. But when I turn it on it says ERROR 01 then the display reads 'xxxxxxx' but it transmits and receives perfect. when I go into the software and read the radio it shows it to be a saber model 1. I made a new codeplug for a model 3 and programmed the radio with the same results. after reading the radio again it shows to be a model 1... I guess its time to buy a saber R mdl 1 housing..

[Elroy Jetson]

You've got a bad memory chip in that radio, I think. It might respond well to an appointment with a hot air soldering system if it's a bad solder joint,
which IS possible.

I'd be sure to check and maybe swap out the flex circuit between the radio and the display board. If it's bad on just one path it can cause all sorts of
weird problems. Remember, the 8K memory chip is on the display board. (Or the 2K board if you've got a 2K limited memory option board.) If that
memory chip has trouble communicating because of a bad flex, anything weird might be the result.


Elroy

[Dorpmuller]

Use older computer-486 might be too fast. I use an old Toshiba T1200 and have no problems. Display will read the err 01 while writing anyway but radio'll be fine. that's my experience anyway-YMMV.

Rich

[GlennD]

I use a 486-50 with no problem with 6.28 and 7.01. When I was dragged into the screen room the programing computer was a pentium 100. This programmed OK but it would not retrieve any tuning info.

The reason we used both versions was that the 6.28 was SP with + or - 10mhz band limits.